It's been 2.5 years since Victor and I earned our Rally Novice title. On Saturday, we're back in the ring going for the Beginner Novice title and Rally Advance title. I thought we were going to be 'rockstars' and then practiced this morning.... not so much. Maybe a bad practice means a good trial. My goal is to earn the CD and the RAE titles.

Then Victor will try something that I think he will really like - tracking! Do Britts track?

I think Victor will do well with tracking too. I did it with Daisy at the Dog camp we go to every year and she was a natural. Barb is right, handler just needs to "hone" the skill and teach the dog how signal when they've found something. Learning to trust the dog is the hardest part !!!!

Daisy did well with this and really likes it, however, I find it boring - so we've settled on agility for now...when she can't do that anymore, maybe we'll go back to tracking because it's easier on the dog's body - and she also gets to do another thing she loves....pulling..... one of the few dog sports where pulling is encouraged!!!! LOL.

We're also probably going to try Rally O too - we pooped out in Flyball (Daisy has no interested in balls) So Rally and Treiball is next on the list.

On leash for Beginner Novice, heeled perfectly into the ring, sat in perfect position, I said 'Let's go' and Victor did - performing nearly the entire course in front of me at the end of the 6 foot leash. Oh, and I guess I never taught him to sit when I stop. And the ring steward who was the 'post' for our figure 8 had some very good smells from her shoes all of the way up her butt! Victor had to do a quick scan every time we went by. But, oddly, we qualified.

So, back in the ring for Rally. I thought - Ok, I can talk to him and keep his head together. Or not... I said 'Let's go' and he spent most of the course walking behind me sniffing the ring fence - except when the 'Fast Pace' came - then he ran and jumped next to me... The hard parts of the course were beautiful. But, oddly, we qualified. And since the other dogs in class were either absent or NQ'd, we got 1st.

Due to some significant delays by the 1st judge of the day, our trials started 2 hours late. We had arrived at 1:30, our first run was at 7PM [was supposed to be at 4pm] and our 2nd run was at 10:30PM - yes, 10:30 a night!